Exelon's (EXC) Unit Gets Consent To Reduce Rates In 2019

Exelon Corporation (NYSE:EXC) announced that its subsidiary, Commonwealth Edison Company (ComEd), has received necessary approval from the Illinois Commerce Commission (ICC) to lower delivery charges, effective January 2019.

Per the approval, the total reduction in delivery charges will be $24 million. Moreover, ComEd’s average residential customer bill will reduce to $84 per month in January 2019 from $85 in September 2008. Adjusted for inflation, ComEd’s average residential bill has declined 14% over the same time period.

Upgrades Help to Lower Cost

ComEd has been continuously investing in improving the reliability of its services. Ongoing investment has reduced outages and the frequency of the same by 50% since the launch of the smart grid program in 2012. Modernization of the grid and decline in associated expenditure allowed the company to file for a rate decline for the third time.

ComEd continues to help customers save money and energy through new solutions created by the Future Energy Jobs Act (FEJA) that took effect in 2017. FEJA authorizes ComEd to invest $1.4 billion over four years in programs that will result in $7 billion savings for business and residential customers, and eliminate 95 billion pounds of carbon emissions.

Long-Term Plans

Exelon has plans to invest nearly $21 billion over the 2018-2021 time frame on its regulated operations, in a bid to improve the reliability of its operations. Such systematic investments in regulated assets will drive rate base growth of 7.4% during this time frame.

Ongoing investment continues to strengthen operation and capability of the company for providing efficient service to customers.

Price Movement

In the past 12 months, shares of the company have gained nearly 14.2% compared with its industry's decline of 0.7%.

Zacks Rank and Key Picks

Exelon currently has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Some better-ranked stocks from the same industry are Ameren Corporation (NYSE:AEE) , American Electric Power Company (NYSE:AEP) and Entergy Corporation (NYSE:ETR) , each carrying a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Ameren, American Electric Power and Entergy reported positive earnings surprise of 17.19%, 1.63% and 33.22%, respectively, in the last reported quarter.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2018 earnings for Ameren, American Electric Power and Entergy has moved up 3.7%, 1.8% and 11.3%, respectively, in the past 60 days.

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